Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Riyadh Reports 4th MERS Case In 4 Days

#10,618

Although their original source of infection remains unknown, what appears to be a household cluster of MERS involving relatively young expat women continues today, with the4th case announced since Saturday.

Yesterday and today’s cases are listed as `household contacts’ of a previously identified case, while the first two cases were listed as `under investigation’.

While we don’t have any direct confirmation that all four cases are connected, it seems likely since four are listed as expat females and range in age from 23 to 27. An uncommon demographic for MERS – which generally skews heavily towards older males - particularly as none are listed as being HCWs.

Hopefully we’ll get some clarification from the WHO on the origins of this apparent cluster in the next few days.